Free Republic

(English-language translation) “Even if I am alone, and I am willing to accept that,” former Governor Pedro Rosselló González will stand by his values and beliefs on what the [pro-statehood] New Progressive Party (PNP) should be. As he indicated, the party promotes values and beliefs that are very different from his own. The Senator and former PNP Chairman, who lost the gubernatorial nomination to fellow party member Luis Fortuño in the past primaries, understands two different, “irreconcilable” viewpoints faced each other during the primaries. On his side, there are the theory of people’s empowerment, promoting statehood in every election as...

(English-language translation) The [pro-statehood] New Progressive Party (PNP) has filled the vacuum the [pro-Commonwealth] Popular Democratic Party (PPD) has left now that [the latter] is veering towards the pro-sovereignty left, former PNP Chairman Pedro Rosselló González pointed out to EL VOCERO. But filling this vacuum towards the center is not without cost, the former Governor warned, since, along the way, the PNP set aside promoting the solution to the [island’s political] status, a matter that, Rosselló said, he cannot separate himself from. During an analysis of the parties and their most recent activities, the incumbent Senator maintained that the PPD...

The grave accusations against (Puerto Rico) Gov. Anibal Acevedo by the U.S. Attorney could create a constitutional crisis. These are times for common sense and reflection. Beyond the legal and judicial considerations that will have their day in Federal Court, this situation uncovers a crude and painful political reality: the total power of the U.S. Congress over Puerto Rico and the applicability in Puerto Rico of all laws passed by the U.S. Congress. By surrendering himself to the Federal Court, Gov. Acevedo recognized the complete authority of the U.S. Government, its Constitution, its laws and of everyone of its public...

At some point early in this new year, President Bush and major European Union leaders are likely to recognize the independence of Kosovo over the furious objections of Serbia and its traditional protector, Russia. Such a decision may have unintended consequences. If Kosovo successfully achieves statehood, Republika Srpska, the Serb entity in Bosnia, will be tempted to follow suit in reprisal, slicing Bosnia almost in half. Meanwhile, Belgium has been gripped by talk about repeating Czechoslovakia’s 1993 “velvet divorce,” with Flemings and Walloons possibly splitting and forming their own little states. What about the claims for the independence of Kurdistan...

SIERRA VISTA — As Arizona prepares for its 100th anniversary as a state in 2012, a special project at the Southern Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery has been recognized as one of the first Arizona Centennial Legacy Projects. Being called a cemetery within a cemetery, a nearly acre area of the state-operated facility will become the final resting place for about 70 soldiers who died between the mid-1860s to the late 1880s and were buried in what is now downtown Tucson. They and hundreds of civilian bodies are being exhumed to make way for a joint court complex for Tucson and...

Excited by the prospect of adding two new senators and seven new representatives to Congress, all of them Democrats? That’s exactly what will happen if Puerto Rico becomes the 51st state. A surprising number of Republican congressmen — and the White House — think it’s a good idea. What’s more, they want to make this happen against the wishes of the majority of Puerto Rican people. Since Eisenhower conferred commonwealth status on the territory in 1952, the Puerto Rican people have voted four times to reject pursuing statehood, including once in 1993 and again in 1998. But H.R. 900, a...

A bill that would have given District of Columbia residents their first-ever member of Congress died in the Senate on Tuesday, dashing hopes of finally gaining full voting rights after a 206-year wait. Senators voted 57-42, just three votes short of the 60 needed to move the measure forward. The bill would have created two new House seats: One for the city of about 600,000 people and one for Utah, which narrowly missed out on a fourth seat after the last census. The procedural vote effectively killed the best chance in decades to win the District a full-fledged House member....

The U.S. Senate failed to pass a bill Tuesday giving the District of Columbia a full vote in the House of Representatives. The bill would also have given an extra Congressional seat to Utah. The 57-42 procedural vote failed to break a threatened filibuster from opponents who believe the measure to be unconstitutional. The Senate cloture vote represents the closest that voting rights proponents have come to success in decades of struggle. Before the vote, supporters said that failure would likely doom voting-rights legislation for this year. Opponents of the measure argued the Constitution expressly limits House representation to states,...

With a critical test vote looming Tuesday, the mayor of the District of Columbia joined allies from both parties in urging the Senate to approve legislation granting full voting rights in the U.S. House to residents of the nation’s capital. At a rally Monday, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty said, “Not since segregation has a senator blocked a voting rights bill.” Jack Kemp, R-N.Y., a former House member and secretary of Housing and Urban Development, added that Republicans used to be the party of civil rights, citing examples from the era of Abraham Lincoln onward. He said that black Republicans are...

Special Report Selling Out the Constitution By Doug Bandow Published 5/8/2007 12:08:14 AM The Republican Party, having squandered its electoral authority by succumbing to the dissolute wiles of Washington, appears to have learned nothing from its defeat last November. Faced with a clear challenge to the unambiguous language of the Constitution, many GOP leaders have abandoned their principles. Particularly shocking is the defection of Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). As a former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Hatch should view himself as a guardian of the Constitution. Instead, he set a low price for violating the document, a price...

Puerto Rico's undefined political status is a serious national policy issue involving civil rights and democracy for four million U.S. citizens. Puerto Ricans were granted citizenship 90 years ago, Congress has not adopted a policy to legally determine the island's permanent status. This is a major deviation from the traditional procedure for clear and orderly transition of territories to full democracy through statehood or separate nationhood. As a result, a population of American citizens in Puerto Rico that is larger than that of 25 states endures an indefinite state of political limbo. This week Congress will hold a hearing on...

WASHINGTON The 108-year-old push to make Puerto Rico the 51st state is thriving on the Caribbean island. But powerful U.S. business interests continue to trump local politics, making it less likely than ever, experts say. More than half of Fortune 100 companies operate there, with billions invested in factories and trained workers. Eli-Lilly & Co., Abbott Laboratories and others, including Microsoft Corp. and Coca-Cola Co., don't want to lose Puerto Rico's tax-free commonwealth status, politicians and academics say. At a congressional hearing set for Thursday, corporate lobbyists are expected to remind statehood advocates that the lure of cheap labor and...

California, the Golden State, has lost much of its golden allure. Many, especially those with conservative, traditional family values believe the state has traded its gold for bronze. Outsiders often view California as the center of liberalism with an anything goes persona. It is not that the state itself is liberal, but liberals have entrenched themselves as slave masters over all Californians. Carefully, they crafted a gerrymandering process to ensure their position of authority while denying due representation of all they were to serve. One can almost hear the snide remarks the controlling elected have for the population of the...

King Abdullah: We are really running out of time! Last update - Jordan's King warns Palestinian statehood at risk due to feuding AMMAN - Jordan's King Abdullah warned feuding Palestinians on Wednesday that their hopes of statehood could be permanently wrecked within months unless they step back from the brink of civil war. Palestinians had to put aside internal differences and face other challenges, he said, citing what he described as a growing right-wing camp in Israel pursuing an uncompromising "fortress Israel" mindset rather than "integration in the region." A power struggle between Hamas and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's...

One of my favorite all-but-unknown books is The Heart Of Princess Osra, written by Anthony Hope in 1896. Hope hit the big time with The Prisoner Of Zenda and its boffo sequel Rupert Of Hentzau, two rip-roaring yarns in which an English dilettante twice contrives to save from usurpers the throne of Ruritania. The Heart Of Princess Osra is also set in Hope's fictional Mitteleuropean kingdom, but this time a century and a half earlier - the 1730s - and it's not a rollicking adventure but a series of ill-starred romantic vignettes featuring King Rudolf III's younger sister and various...

(English-language translation) DORADO — The Puerto Rican Constitution protects the [freedoms] of speech and assembly. However, some of the thousands who celebrated it in Dorado did not seem to understand this precept as they threw bottles and eggs at a small group of pro-independence theater artists who were criticizing the use of public funds for this official observance and several members of the Statehood Youth who also protested in a building adjacent to the public square. The youth, who demanded "statehood now", as well as the six members of the "Papel Machete" theater troupe, had to be removed from the...

(English-language translation) The 4th of July celebration by [Puerto Rico] government officials belonging to the [pro-statehood] New Progressive Party (PNP) turned again into a plea to the United States government to make the island that nation's 51st state. Senator and PNP Chairman Pedro Rosselló said that the United States "ceased to be a republic" in 1898, when it acquired Puerto Rico and other territories as colonial possessions. "It became a colonial power that imposes second-class citizenships and denies full rights and privileges that its own federal Constitution recognizes. My point of contention is that, as long as the indignity of...

(English-language translation) The activity to commemorate Flag Day [in Puerto Rico] stressed the importance that supporters of statehood place on the billions of dollars the island receives in federal funds. Scores of participants marched along Roosevelt Avenue towards the headquarters of the New Progressive Party (PNP) in Hato Rey, where they met other followers to total over 100 [attendees]. Although PNP Vice-Chairman Jorge Santini and House Speaker José Aponte were present at this proselytizing event, the absence of other leaders, including PNP Chairman Pedro Rosselló, was noticeable. "We discussed a budget that can be $9.2, 9.4, or 9.6 billion, but...

ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - Puerto Rican Gov. Anibal Acevedo-Vila denounced on Friday a new congressional proposal for a two-part referendum on the Caribbean island's legal status, saying the ballot was written in favor of statehood. The bill, presented to the U.S. Congress on Thursday, came after a presidential task force called on U.S. lawmakers to set a date for a plebiscite on Puerto Rico's legal status, reinvigorating long debate over whether it should seek statehood, independence or to remain a commonwealth. In the Puerto Rico Democracy Act of 2006, Rep. Jose Serrano, a Democrat from New York, said his proposal...

109TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. To provide for a federally sanctioned self-determination process for the people of Puerto Rico. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Mr. Fortuño introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on .......................... A BILL To provide for a federally sanctioned self-determination process for the people of Puerto Rico. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. (a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Puerto Rico Democracy Act of 2006’’. (b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The...

The status question, after years on the back burner, will dominate Puerto Rican politics this year. The event that signaled the launch of intense campaigning on the issue by all three of the island’s political parties was the publication in Washington last month of a report commissioned by President Bush. The report, compiled by an interagency task force, recommended that there should be a federal plebiscite this year on whether Puerto Rico wants to maintain its current status as a territory or commonwealth (estado libre asociado, ELA) of the United States or choose a nonterritorial alternative. In the latter case,...

The question of statehood for Puerto Rico is again bobbing to the surface like a mossy coconut, as it seems to with annoying regularity. Some Republicans - including a few in the Bush clan's inner circle - apparently have convinced themselves this would mean a political windfall for the GOP, in terms of courting the Hispanic/Latino vote. But we've never seen the math on that. And besides - it would be a supremely cynical reason for pushing statehood for the commonwealth.Perhaps with this chimera in mind, the Bush administration has "asked Congress to set yet another vote for the island's...

WASHINGTON D.C. - Dec. 23, 2005 Today the Republican National Hispanic Assembly (RNHA) commends President Bush and the White House Task Force on Puerto Rico for their report providing measures for full enfranchisement for the citizens of Puerto Rico. The RNHA salutes the President for his courage and leadership on this issue. “The White House report is a milestone for the people of Puerto Rico on their road to self-determination,” said Chairman Pedro Celis, Ph.D. “President Bush understands the importance of the 3.8 million U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico. Providing them with options to determine Puerto Rico’s legal status is...

JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's new centrist party on Monday declared Palestinian statehood as a central goal, and Israel signaled it would drop a threat to ban Jerusalem's Palestinians from voting in their parliamentary election. The signs of a moderate line for present and future political moves were tempered, however, by an announcement of new Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank. The latest building, disclosed in newspaper ads published Monday seeking bids from contractors, would violate Israel's commitments under the U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan. The plans include 228 homes in the settlements of Beitar Illit and Efrat...

The way is clear for Puerto Rico's final political status process The Report by the President's Task Force on Puerto Rico's Status is the first report of its type issued this century by the Executive Branch. For a long time now supporters of the current and so-called "Commonwealth" status have said that Puerto Rico's political status was a new federal body politic conceived to place the Island outside of the Territorial Clause of the U.S. Constitution. This Report effectively ends that kind of speculation, as far as the Executive Branch is concerned. In spite of the cries of "foul" from...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A presidential task force said in a report on Thursday that the people of Puerto Rico should decide in a series of votes whether the island should become the 51st U.S. state or an independent nation.The task force urged the U.S. Congress within a year to set a date for a plebiscite in which the people of Puerto Rico would be asked whether they want to change the Caribbean island's commonwealth status. If they choose to change the island's status, Congress should set another vote on statehood or independence, the task force said.Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens...

US Supreme Court asked to review Puerto Rico voting ban decision by Michael Richardson Monday, December 12, 2005 Source: Caribbean Net News WASHINGTON, USA: The US Supreme Court has an opportunity to review its doctrine of colonialism established a century ago in the infamous Insular Cases which relegated residents of Puerto Rico to second-class citizenship. Chief plaintiff Gregorio Igartua de al Rosa has led a decade-long legal battle to obtain the right to vote for President, filing three lawsuits over the span of time. In 2000, the dedicated Puerto Rican attorney won a US District Court ruling ordering a presidential...

Copyright © 2005 The Hill Newspaper. All rights reserved. For educational and discussion purposes only. In 1992, I was polling for Michael Huffington’s primary challenge to California’s veteran Republican Rep. Bob Lagomarsino. Our opposition research discovered that the incumbent was a promoter of statehood for Puerto Rico. The campaign-consultant team huddled and decided to use this as one point in our critique of Lagomarsino’s congressional record. But, as it turned out, the Puerto Rico attack fizzled. The issue was obscure to the public and press. Even Huffington seemed disinterested. Our polls showed that just 23 percent of the Republican primary...

Today we celebrate another anniversary of the independence of the United States of America. For that, all Americans are thankful. As you know, I defend the admission of Puerto Rico as our Nation's 51st state. Many wonder how would our flag look with 51 stars. Easy, it would look like this: See how beautiful it looks? The amount and the arragement of the stars in the blue field should never be an issue about admitting Puerto Rico into the Union. There are other, more important matters surrounding the issue than what would be the appropriate distribution of white thread over...

On Wednesday May 4, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (Boston) will review, for the third time and this time en banc, the appeal of San Juan attorney Gregorio Igartua-De La Rosa's lawsuit claiming the right to vote in Presidential elections for the U.S. citizens that reside in the (U.S.) Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The appeal from the U.S District Court for the District of Puerto Rico has been turned down twice before on account of Article II of the United States Constitution. Igartua et al have claimed that the right to vote is inherent to...

Puerto Rico Statehood Manifesto When in the course of human events it becomes necessary to point an accusatory finger to the Congress of a Nation known for more than two centuries as a beacon of Liberty, Hope, and Progress to all the peoples of the World; and when it becomes necessary to expose grave inconsistencies, such as the denial of essential rights and freedoms to a sizeable portion of that Nation’s citizens, wishing that by exposing such illness a cancer of contradictions endangering that Nation’s very soul be averted — it then falls upon those of us feeling the brunt...

The Puerto Rico Senate and House of Representatives have approved, and the governor is expected to sign, a bill petitioning the U.S. Congress to establish by 2006, a process to resolve the political status of the Commonwealth with options that are non-colonial and non-territorial. Puerto Rico was ceded to the United States by Spain following the War of 1898, also known as the Spanish-American War. The Treaty of Versailles, which formalized the peace between the former and up and coming powers, transferred the rule over the islands to the U.S. Congress which has governed Puerto Rico under the territorial clause...

What We Propose. The Expansionist Party ("XP") advocates reannexation of the Philippines, a former U.S. colony, to the United States, but this time as up to three States of the Union: Luzon, Mindanao (the two largest islands, in the far north and south respectively) and the Visayas (the islands in between). We feel this is the only thing certain to secure both political and social democracy for the archipelago and set its people on the road to fairly distributed prosperity. We also believe the Philippines can help restore perspective and purpose to a U.S. that has lost sight of its...

The Republic of the Philippines is an archipeligo of over 7,100 islands located north of Malaysia, Australia and Indonesia in the Pacific Ocean and south of Taiwan. The Philippine Islands became a Spanish colony during the 16th century; they were ceded to the US in 1898 following the Spanish- American War. In 1935 the Philippines became a self-governing commonwealth. Manuel QUEZON was elected President and was tasked with preparing the country for independence after a 10-year transition. In 1942 the islands fell under Japanese occupation during WWII, and US forces and Filipinos fought together during 1944-45 to regain control. On...

In his inaugural address, President Bush promised that “America will not impose our own style of government on the unwilling.” His words and actions, however, indicate otherwise. According to media reports, large sectors of the Iraqi population will be excluded from the Jan. 30 elections. Iraq’s introduction to “democracy” will occur under U.S. military occupation and in a time of extreme danger and war. Democracy imposed with the threat of force is not democracy at all. It didn’t work in Puerto Rico a century ago, and it’s not going to work in Iraq this week. What’s the connection between Puerto...

Dear President Bush: If as you stated in your inaugural address, “the policy of the United Sates is to seek and support the growth of the democratic movements and institutions in each nation and culture”, it should be more so in each state and territory under the American flag. But, how can you be joyous that the Congress and the Executive are committed to the expansion of democratic participation of the American citizens that happen to be Puerto Rican by origin or ethnicity [in the mainland], while at the same time half of us, four million that live on the...

Should New York City become the 51st state? A bill that would create a commission to study whether the city should secede from New York state will get another hearing soon — after sitting in the City Council for nearly two years The bill was introduced on Feb. 26, 2003. A hearing was held shortly after, but no action has been taken on the bill since then. "I expected delays and opposition when we got to the state level, but I never thought it would be held up for two years trying to get out of a City Council committee,"...

In an apparent change in long-standing policy, a top Hamas leader said Friday the militant group would accept the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as well as a long-term truce with Israel. Hamas' statement came as Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak described Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as the Palestinians' best chance for peace. Mubarak's comments could mean warming relations between Israel and an important Mideast peace mediator at a crucial time. It was a marked departure from past comments from Mubarak and other Egyptian officials blaming Sharon for the escalation of violence in...

www.omaha.com/index.php?u_np=0&u_pg=1673&u_sid=1222597 www.omaha.com/index.php?u_np=0&u_pg=1673&u_sid=1222660 GWEN IFILL, HOST, PBS'S "WASHINGTON WEEK": Good evening from Case Western Reserve University's Veale Center here in Cleveland, Ohio. ... IFILL: Senator Edwards, as we wrap up the foreign policy part of this, I do want to talk to you about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Today, a senior member of Islamic Jihad was killed in Gaza. There have been suicide bombings, targeted assassinations, mortar attacks, all of this continuing at a time when the United States seems absent in the peace-making process. What would your administration do? First of all, do you agree that the United States is absent?...

The United States is ready to be a partner in helping Palestinians build their own state and will keep to plans to hand over power to an interim Iraqi government on June 30, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said Sunday. In a German television interview, Rice also said she felt "great shame" about the abuse of inmates at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad but insisted it had not undermined US moral authority in the world. Rice's comments came before talks in Berlin on Monday with Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei, part of a renewed Bush administration effort to bring about...

The Palestinian Authority is considering declaring a state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem if Israel tries to impose a boundary on the Palestinians, former PA minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said Monday. Zalman Shoval, a senior aide to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, warned Israel could annex disputed territories in response. The possibility of the declaration of a Palestinian state was raised at a meeting of Palestinian leaders over the weekend. Abed Rabbo, who is one of the Palestinian initiators of the Geneva Accord, said many of those present supported the idea, but did not say whether Yasser...

News Release The Zionist Organization of America Jacob & Libby Goodman ZOA House Phone: 212-481-1500 4 East 34th St. New York, NY 10016 Fax: 212-481-1515 e-mail: email@zoa.org Web Site: www.zoa.org July 7, 2003 Contact: (212-481-1500) "Israel Accepted Road MapOnly Because of U.S. Pressure"   Israeli Cabinet Minister, In U.S., Says Bush'sRoad Map Plan Is "A Great Victory For Terrorists"       NEW YORK - A senior Israeli cabinet minister, meeting with Jewish leaders in New York, called the Bush administration's Road Map plan is "a great victory for terrorists," and said that the Israeli government accepted the plan "only...

Israel's army chief and Hamas replaced weapons with words Thursday, each claiming victory after 33 months of bloody conflict, while a four-day-old truce appeared to hold despite new violence. Israel released several Palestinian prisoners, including Suleiman Abu Mutlak, a top Palestinian security official from Gaza. Palestinians demand that Israel free more than 5,000 people captured in Israeli sweeps, but Israel has only released several dozen, many of whom had served most of their sentences. Interviewed on Israel TV, Mohammed Dahlan, the Palestinian minister in charge of security, called for the release of 416 prisoners serving long sentences, saying they had...

Listening to US President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, they seem to be determined not to be midwives to a new terrorist state. The road map is supposed to prevent such a state from coming about. Yet there is no escaping that the cease-fire that Israel is expected to accept will result in such a state, or the ultimate continuation of the war to eradicate the nascent Palestinian "unity government" of terror. The "initiative," as last night's internal Palestinian agreement among the terrorist groups now attacking Israel is called, is not really a cease-fire, but a set...

The shooting death of Bezeq technician Amit Martin in Baka al-Gharbiya, an Arab village on the Green Line, is a further reminder that civilian Israelis working in or near the territories are easy and desirable targets for Palestinian terrorists, even in areas of Israeli security control. Martin is not the first Bezeq worker killed in the ongoing Palestinian violence; last August company worker Nizal Awasat and security guard Yekutiel Amihai were killed in Jerusalem when a Palestinian gunman ambushed their truck near the Old City's Damascus Gate. Two other Bezeq employees were seriously injured in the attack, as well as...

A council of Rabbis opposed to the 'road map' peace plan released a statement Monday that voiced their opposition to a Palestinian state as part of the peace formula of the 'road map' plan. "No government has any right or mandate to decree the establishment of any foreign state or to give over any part of the State of Israel to foreigners," read the statement. The Rabbis also wrote that any move to give the Palestinians a state was null and void "in the name of God of Israel who promised the Land of Israel to the nation of Israel...

The Bush Administration's public condemnation of Israel's efforts to destroy the command infrastructure of the Hamas terrorist organization is disappointing to say the least. The condemnation unfortunately demonstrates the administration's schizophrenic approach to "the War on Terror." Israel's helicopter air strikes over the last several days are aimed directly at decreasing the ability of Hamas to continue terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians. Homicide bombers have murdered over 365 Israelis in just the last 32 months. The U.S. government should praise Israel's aggressive targeting of Hamas leaders and those of other terrorist groups, not condemn it. If attacks on Hamas terrorist...

It seems to many Jews in the Diaspora that the latest developments in the political scenery of the Middle East indicate an enormous victory for terror (and for Yasser Arafat personally). While in the Oslo agreement all the difficult questions (Jerusalem, refugees, settlements) were to be discussed after a lengthy peace process, and before the establishment of a Palestinian state, under the Road Map a provisional state will be proclaimed before those issues are resolved. By then, Israel has to dismantle its illegal outposts, and any expansion of settlements (including their natural growth) is forbidden. How can it make sense...

President George W. Bush on Friday said one of the main reaons for his planned soujourn in the Middle East next week is his wish to show the region's leaders that he is "determined" to create a two-state solution in order to achieve peace between Israel and the Palestinians. In a series of interviews conducted Thursday and released Friday, as he flew to Poland, Bush said he wanted to meet with Mideast leaders because "I am intent upon working toward a two-state solution in the Middle East - two states, Israel and Palestine, living side-by-side in peace. In other words,...

The Independence Party has historically handicapped itself in Puerto Rico by saddling its case with failed Socialist dogma and reflex anti-Americanism. No cause in the Caribbean can succeed under the crushing weight of those twin burdens, and the sooner they are shed, the brighter prospects for independence will be. Socialism has proved, on a worldwide basis, to be a formula for economic blight, frequently accompanied by painful sacrifices in human freedom and dignity. Less obvious is the cost of hostility to the U.S. This impractical and totally unnecessary tactic is self-defeating for the following reasons: